Where There’s a Helpful Smile in Every Aisle

Today marks day 35 of being a Des Moines resident. Ya know what my favorite thing about Des Moines is? It’s not the short commute times, the friendly people, or the $2 pints of Peroni at The Lift on Thursday nights, it’s Hy-Vee. Hy-Vee is the most incredible grocery store that I have ever been to in my life. I have been to grocery stores all over the United States of America, and Hy-Vee takes the cake. Sometimes I go to Hy-Vee just to look around…ok I admit, I don’t have many friends yet. Hy-Vee is huge and the aisles are wide enough to accommodate two grocery carts. Everything is shiny and more importantly clean and the people that work there smile at you for no reason and want to help you find what you’re looking for-they even walk you over to the product. Try finding that in New York City. Here are the top 10 reasons why Hy-Vee is incredible:

1) Some Hy-Vee stores are open 24 hours a day and if you go shopping after 8pm nobody is there. I don’t know what everyone is up to in this town after 8pm but it certainly isn’t grocery shopping:

Wide aisles!

2) For some reason there are Jamba Juice dispensers. I have never seen a Jamba Juice dispenser outside of a Jamba Juice store in my life:

3) There’s an entire section reserved for Jelly Belly:

4) There are pharmacies within the store-some even have doctor’s hours. Oh and there’s a pharmacy drive thru:

5) There’s an entire gluten free section:

6) There’s a coinstar machine! Do you have any idea how much change I have as there are no coinstar machines to be found in NYC? I could buy a months worth of groceries with all of my change:

10) You can bring your grocery cart all the way to your car! In Manhattan there is only one grocery store that has a parking lot! One store with a parking lot! Then grocery stores in the outer boroughs have metal barricades set up that are narrower than the grocery carts so nobody steals the carts. Hy-Vee doesn’t care if someone steals a cart…probably.

This post may seem like one big advertisement for Hy-Vee, and no they didn’t pay me to write this.

Having a decent grocery store in my life that isn’t small, dirty, and packed to the gills with people still feels like a luxury. I’m enjoying the comforts of life in Des Moines.

I’ve been to a couple good Chinese places in Des Moines but HyVee is great because it’s convenient. Also, I would think any suburban grocery store would beat what they have in NYC just because of space. Dahls, HyVee, Ralph’s, Albertsons; they’re all about the same, just with slight differences.

Hi Hy-Vee. I have been to quite a few of your Des Moines locations-I wasn’t really writing about one store in particular. I like the MLK, Merle Hay, and Windsor Heights locations but that’s because they’re the most conveniently located for me.

Annick I feel I should clarify– Ralph’s and Albertsons aren’t in Iowa (as far as I know); I just found them to be very similar. But yeah Dahls is great; they used to be tons better than HyVee but not anymore now that HyVee is also spectacular!

Sam’s Egg Roll (located in the strip mall next to Save Alot on the corner of SW 9th and Park Ave) makes the best chinese food I have EVER had. Sam doesn’t make anything until it is ordered, so his food is always hot and fresh! It is a family restaurant, ran by Sam and his wife, and their daughters. Give it a try and I bet you’ll become a regular customer there!

I would rather have Safeway back or a Krogers. They have a simple rewards card you swipe at the register and you automatically get the in store specials/sales. The 2 Hy-Vee stores by my house are “generic” compared to the one in your pictures. They are like the forgotten children.